To date, every Mission: Impossible film has had a different director guiding the increasingly ambitious stunts of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. But for the follow-up to Rogue Nation, there will be a change (or rather no change), as, following earlier speculation and talk of negitiations, Christopher McQuarrie will return to write, direct and co-produce Mission: Impossible 6.
You can understand why Paramount might want him back: Rogue Nation was a huge success ($682.3 million worldwide and counting at the box office) and his long working relationship and close friendship with Cruise makes the job easier for all involved. Not to mention that it was a great film full stop even without the I:M trappings.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly recently, McQuarrie did make it sound like he was at least pondering the idea. Despite admitting at the time, “I know that that’s a bigger conversation we’ve only flirted with, so who knows?”, he went on to admit that he’d been coming up with ideas for new show-stopping stunts."As soon as we landed [from Rogue Nation’s plane sequence], somebody said, ‘What are you gonna do now?’" he says. "I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and I’ve got a secret little list that may or may not happen. We have an idea, and it doesn’t require low Earth orbit. Let’s put it this way: There are bigger stunts without more altitude.”
Cruise, of course, will be involved, having been the lynchpin as star and producer for years. And it’s a fair bet that Rebecca Ferguson could also be back as Ilsa Faust, ending a run of female characters never showing up again (Michelle Monaghan’s tiny, uncredited cameo at the end of Ghost Protocol not withstanding). The aim, apparently, is to have the new film shooting in August of next year, so all involved will want these decisions made sooner rather than later to allow proper time for development and planning. We'll have our epic Pod-chat with McQuarrie up around Rogue Nation's Blu-ray release, so keep and eye and an ear out for it.